^  t.. 


.^Hi% 


Kephart 


txhvavy  of  Che  trheolo^ical  ^tmimty 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Rufus  H.  LeFevre 

•  5X3  5' 2. 


A  BRIEF  TREAT 


MAY  21   1'5'-^   .  a 


ON 


THE  ATONEMENT 


y 

EZEKIEL  B.  KEPHART,  D.D.,  LL.D, 

A  Bishop  of  the 
Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ 


Dayton,  Ohio 

United   Brethren   Publishing  House 

I90£ 


CopyHght  1902,  by  W.  R.  Funk,  Agent 
All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE. 

This  brief  treatise  on  the  atonement  has  been 
prepared  to  meet  a  want  felt  by  many  who  desire 
information  on  special  Bible  doctrines. 

Both  in  the  ministry  and  in  the  laity  of  the 
Church  there  are  those  who  are  not  prepared  to 
purchase  expensive  books  on  doctrinal  subjects, 
nor  have  they  the  time  always  to  devote  to  the 
perusal  of  such  exhaustive  volumes,  but  they  are 
anxious  to  be  informed  on  special  subjects.  To 
accommodate  such  persons,  this  little  booklet  has 
been  written. 

To  treat  a  great  subject  in  a  form  so  condensed 
is  no  easy  task,  yet  it  is  hoped  that,  though  brief 
the  treatise,  the  doctrine  taught  is  set  forth  in 
language  sufficiently  plain,  and  will  be  readily 
comprehended.  E.  B.  K. 


iii 


{^e^ 


CONTENTS. 


Chaptek 

I.    Atonement, 


II.    Priesthood  of  Christ,        _       .       -       .  19 

III.  Necessity  of  the  Atonement,     -       -  27 

IV.  Theories  of  the  Atonement,  -       -  44 

V.    Views  of  the  Atonement  Held  by  the 
Church  of  the  United  Brethren  in 

Christ, 64 


THE  ATONEMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Atonement. 

The  problem  of  sin,  and  Christ's  solution  of 
it,  is  the  great  factor  in  the  gospel.  The  redemp- 
tion of  a  world  by  the  Son  of  God,  and  bringing  it 
into  conditions  of  perfect  reconciliation  with  the 
Father  by  means  of  an  atonement  for  sin,  involves 
the  most  profound  mysteries  of  the  universe. 

The  word  "atonement,"  by  its  derivation,  shows 
or  describes  "the  setting  'at  one'  or  the  reconcilia- 
tion of  two  parties  who  have  been  estranged." 
Its  equivalents,  as  used  in  the  English  Bible,  are 
different  forms  of  the  root  ^5D  in  the  Old  Testa- 

-    T 

ment,  and  KaraXkayij  in  the  New.  The  verb  '193 
means  "to  cover,"  and  describes  the  effect  of  the 
sacrifices  on  the  high  priest  and  the  altar  at  the 


The  Atonement 

time  of  the  original  consecration;^  also,  of  the 
annual  sacrifices  for  the  renewal  of  consecration 
of  the  high  priest,  his  household,  the  people,  and 
the  tabernacle,  on  "the  day  of  atonement."^  It 
is  frequently  used  in  connection  with  sin  and 
trespass  offerings  of  various  forms,  as  well  as  to 
describe  the  effect  of  the  sacrifices  offered  on  ac- 
count of  the  nation  and  of  individual  Israelites, 
for  guilt  acknowledged  or  defilement  obtained  ac- 
cidentally or  otherwise.^ 

A  derivative  from  the  same  root  is  used  by 
Moses  to  describe  his  intercession  at  Sinai,*  and 
the  effects  of  Aaron's  incense  offering,^  and  of 
Phinehas's  punishment,  so  promptly  inflicted  on 
Zimri.^  In  these  instances  given,  we  have  an  ex- 
ample of  the  effects  of  those  sacrifices  not  being 
limited  by  Levitical  boundaries,  but  extending 
to  cases  and  conditions  beyond  what  they  were  ap- 
pointed to  deal  with,  and  thus  paving  the  way  as 
a  ground  for  the  hope  of  an  atonement  that  would 
ultimately  be  made  to  meet  every  human  need 
arising  from  sin."^  In  EzekieP  and  in  Second 
Chronicles,®  this  same  verb,  where  it  refers  to  the 


'Ex.  29:36; 

Lev. 

'Lev.  4:30;  Num. 

eNum.25:13. 

8:15. 

5:8. 

'Deut.  9:24. 

•Lev.  16:10. 

*  Ex.  32:30. 

sEzek.  16:63. 

e  Num.  16:46. 

•IL  Chr.30:18. 

The  Atonement 

direct  action  of  Jehovah,  signifies  ^^to  forgive," 
"to  pardon." 

In  the  New  Testament,  the  same  thought  finds 
expression  in  a  variety  of  forms,  as  forgiveness,^** 
propitiation,^^  redemption.  "But  Christ  having 
come  a  high  priest  of  good  things  to  come, 
through  the  greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle, 
not  made  with  hands,  that  is  to  say,  not  of  this 
creation,  nor  yet  through  the  blood  of  goats  and 
calves,  but  through  his  own  blood,  entered  in  once 
for  all  into  the  holy  place,  having  obtained  eter- 
nal redemption."^^  x\lso,  as  reconciliation,  or 
atonement ;  that  is,  "making  peace,"  implying  two 
parties  estranged.  "For  it  was  the  good  pleasure 
of  the  Father  that  in  him  should  all  fulness  dwell ; 
and  through  him  to  reconcile  all  things  unto  him- 
self, having  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  the 
cross;  through  him,  I  say,  whether  things  upon 
the  earth,  or  things  in  the  heavens."^ ^  "For  if, 
while  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God 
through  the  death  of  his  Son,  much  more,  being 
reconciled,  shall  we  be  saved  by  his  life;  and  not 
only  so,  but  we  also  rejoice  in  God  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  we  have  now 

^oEph.  4:32.  "Heb.  9:12. 

"I.  John  4: 10.  "Col.  1: 19,  20;  also,  Rom.  5: 10, 11. 


The  Atonement 

received  the  reconciliation."^*  This  scripture  in 
Colossians  seems  to  be  strangely  far-reaching,  and 
limits  not  the  effects  of  Christ's  sacrificial  death 
upon  the  cross  to  human  guilt,  but  extends  it  to 
all  things,  whether  in  the  heavens  or  upon  the 
earth,  just  as  the  sacrifices  offered  by  Moses, 
Aaron,  and  Phinehas  swept  by  and  beyond  Levit- 
ical  limitations. 

I.  The  language  used,  both  in  the  Old  and 
the  l^ew  Testaments,  with  reference  to  this  sub- 
ject, as  already  stated,  implies  the  estrangement 
of  two  parties. 

1.  The  parties  estranged  are  God  and  man. 
The  opening  record  of  human  history,  as  recorded 
in  the  second  and  third  chapters  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  tells  the  story  of  the  two  parties  and 
their  relations  before  and  after  the  estrangement : 
God  as  the  Creator  and  man  as  the  created.  First 
comes  their  fellowship  and  communion,  then  sud- 
denly falls  the  dark  shadow  of  their  estrangement, 
which  has  marked  every  period  of  man's  history 
from  that  event.  The  interpreter  of  the  sacred 
pages  referred  to,  may,  if  it  please  him,  call  that 
part  of  the  record  an  allegory,  a  scientific  diagram, 
or  a  poetic  illustration;  nevertheless,  the  sad  fact 

"II.  Cor.  5:18, 19. 

10 


The  Atonement 

remains  that  man  is  not  yet  out  of  the  wilderness 
of  his  wanderings,  and  by  whatever  method  we 
translate  its  records,  their  meaning  is  the  same. 
Without  intermission  in  the  whole  sweep  of  re- 
corded history,  human  sin,  sorrow,  suffering,  and 
guilt  loom  up  against  a  divine  background  of  in- 
sulted love,  righteous  indignation,  and  just  retri- 
bution. Are  these  representations  out  of  accord 
with  what  we  know  of  human  life  from  every 
available  source? 

2.     The  cause  of  the  estrangement. 

(1)  On  the  man  side,  the  estrangement  is  the 
direct  consequence  of  his  sin.  Sin  is  lawlessness — 
rebellion  against  legally  constituted  authority. 
^^Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law.^'^^  Man's 
arbitrary  refusal  to  submit  to  the  law  of  God 
seems  to  be  wrought  into  his  very  being,  and  to 
have  become  part  of  himself.  "Eecause  the  mind 
of  the  flesh  is  enmity  against  God;  for  it  is  not 
subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  it 
be."^®  The  life  lived  by  man  in  sin  reiterates  this 
heart  alienation  from  God,  and  the  reflex  influ- 
ence of  each  sin  committed  upon  the  transgressor 
increases  his  alienation  from  God.     Not  only  by 

"» I.  John  3: 4.       >«  Rom.  8:7. 
11 


TJie  Atonement 

every  sin  committed  is  the  sinner  rendered  less 
conscious  of  his  guilt,  and  his  self-determination 
weakened,  but  additional  guilt  is  incurred,  and 
new  terror  is  added  to  the  curse  of  God's  violated 
law.  Each  generation  of  our  sorrow-smitten  race, 
in  every  age  and  in  every  clime,  has  left  its  sad 
history  in  characters  of  blood.  The  first  chapter 
in  Romans  is  a  standing  comment  on  human  his- 
tory, and  true  to  life  in  all  lands. 

(2)  On  the  God  side  of  this  estrangement,  the 
Cause  is  his  purity,  holiness,  and  love;  hence,  the 
two  natures — God  holy,  man  unholy — are  exact  op- 
posites.  The  purity  of  God  cannot  tolerate  the 
impurity  in  man's  nature.  His  nature  being  holy 
and  loving,  he  cannot  be  indifferent  to  sin.  Every 
attribute  of  God  is  at  variance  with  sin,  and  he 
is  represented  as  being  angry  with  the  wicked 
every  day.  His  wrath  must,  and  does  rest  upon 
the  transgressor.^^  But  too  much  care  cannot  be 
taken  in  the  study  of  the  Word  and  in  its  inter- 
pretation, in  order  to  distinguish  clearly  the  dif- 
ference in  spirit  of  God  toward  man  and  man 
toward  God.  Man's  attitude  is  one  of  hate,  is 
vengeful  and  full  of  malice,  but  God's  is  the  spirit 
of  a  loving  father  to  an  erring,  disobedient,  and 

"John  3:36. 

12 


The  Atonement 

prodigal  boy,  whose  lost  love  the  father  is  anxious 
to  win  back. 

The  language  of  the  New  Testament  is  match- 
less in  this  particular.  With  seemingly  the  great- 
est care,  words  and  terms  are  used  to  avoid  even 
the  suspicion  of  any  taint  of  human  passion  or 
f eelingj  or  that  any  such  shadow  should  fall  upon 
the  inlinite  purity  of  the  divine  and  holy  indigna- 
tion. God  is  spoken  of  as  an  enemy  to  sin,  but; 
never  as  man's  enemy.  Man  is  declared  to  be  the 
enemy  of  God.  "While  we  were  enemies."^^  "Be- 
cause the  mind  of  the  flesh  is  enmity  against 
God."^^  God  is  always  represented  as  the  one  of- 
fended, and  man  as  his  offender.  God  never  is 
represented  in  the  Word  as  needing  or  demand- 
ing reconciliation  for  himself,  but  proposes  recon- 
ciliation for  man.  "God  was  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself."-^  "Whom  God  set 
forth  to  be  a  propitiation"  for  us.^^  The  sacred 
Scriptures  abound  in  like  statements,  ever  ex- 
pressing God's  infinite  tenderness  and  compas- 
sion for  sinful  humanity.  "As  I  live,  saith  the 
Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked;  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way 

»9Rom.  5:10.  »" II.  Cor.  5: 19.  "Rom.3:25. 

»»  Rom.  8:7. 

13 


The  Atonement 

and  live."^^  The  invitation  to  become  reconciled 
always  comes  from  God.  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."^^  "Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be 
found,  call  ye  upon  liim  while  he  is  near:  let  the 
wicked  forsake  his  way,  .  .  .  and  let  him 
return  unto  the  Lord,  .  .  .  for  he  will 
abundantly  pardon."^* 

The  atonement,  then,  as  taught  in  the  gospel, 
must  not  be  construed  to  mean  the  taking  away 
or  the  necessity  of  taking  away  any  reluctance 
upon  the  part  of  God  to  forgive  the  penitent  sin- 
ner, for  no  such  reluctance  anywhere  is  manifest  in 
the  divine  Word;  hence,  no  such  device  is  needed, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  atonement  is  God's 
own  provision,  which  he  himself  has  made  to  re- 
move all  obstacles  to  communion,  which  sin  has 
introduced,  and  forever  eliminate  the  cause  of  the 
estrangement  which  obtains  between  God  and 
man.  God's  love  is  an  infinite  love,  his  mercy  an 
infinite  mercy,  and  his  compassion  an  infinite  com- 
passion, hence  his  nature  is  unchangeable,  and,  as 
such,  needs  not  to  be  condoned.  But  "the  wages 
of   sin  is  death,"  nevertheless,   and  man  is   the 

»«  Ezek.  33:  1 1.  «=«  Matt.  11 :  28.  »♦  Isa.  55:  6. 

14 


The  Atonement 

transgressor.  Hence,  the  difficulty  has  been,  and 
is,  with  him,  and  the  moral  government  of  God, 
under  which  he  is,  and  which  government  he  has 
violated,  must  be  condoned. 

3.  The  means  of  reconciliation  or  condonation. 
Christ  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  is  the  medium  pro- 
posed by  the  Father,  by  which  the  obstacle,  sin, 
has  been  set  aside  and  "a  new  and  a  living  way'* 
opened  to  communion  with  God.  "For  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life."^^  Says  Dr.  Murray, 
"He  himself  is  our  peace,^^  he,  the  eternal  Son 
of  the  eternal  Father,  is  the  Lamb  foreknown  in- 
deed before  the  foundation  of  the  world,^^  and  the 
restoration  of  the  broken  harmony  of  the  uni- 
verse^^  springs  from  his  eternal  surrender  of  him- 
self to  do  the  Father's  will."  This  eternal  sacri- 
fice, with  its  unfathomable  roots  fixed  in  the  fore- 
knowledge of  God,  was  manifest  in  time,  when 
"the  Word  was  made  flesh,"  and  became  effectual 
in  the  world's  redemption,  by  a  life  of  obedience  to 
the  will  of  the  Father,  which  reached  its  culmina- 
tion in  his  shameful  death  on  the  cross.     Hence 

••John  3: 16.       "I.  Pet  1:20.       ""Col.  1:  20,  cf.  Eph.  1: 10. 
"Eph.  2:14. 

15 


The  Atonement 

the  atonement  is  always  attributed  especially  to  , 

his   death — "his   blood,"   "his   cross."      "Having  ' 

made  peace  through  the  blood  of   his   cross."^^  : 

"We  were  reconciled  to  God  through  the  death  of  I 

his  Son."^®    "But  God  commendeth  his  own  love  \ 

toward  us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  i 

Christ  died  for  us.    Much  more  then,  being  now  i 

justified  by  his  blood,  shall  we  be  saved  from  the  ! 

wrath  of  God  through  him."^^ 

II.     In  the  divine  Word,  the  cost  of  the  atone-  i 

j 
ment  is  presented  from  two  sides :  | 

1.  As  to  the  attitude  of  the  Father  in  this,  i 
the  world's  greatest  tragedy,  Paul  is  very  ex-  ; 
plicit :  "He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  de-  | 
livered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  also  i 
with  him  freely  give  us  all  things  ?"^^  "That  in  i 
the  ages  to  come  he  might  shew  the  exceeding  ■ 
riches  of  his  grace  in  kindness  toward  us  in  Christ  [ 
Jesus."33  '^The  great  love"  of  the  Father  to  man  | 
while  "he  was  yet  a  sinner,"  prompted  "the  gift  of  ■ 
his  Son,"  which  made  an  atonement  full  and  com-  ] 
plete,  and  thus  united  the  cord  that  had  been  j 
broken  by  sin.  i 

2.  As  to  the  effect  of  the  cost  on  the  Son.    It  ; 

«« Col.  1:20.  »»Rom.  5:8. 9.  »»Eph.2:7.  ;■ 

*»  Rom.  5:10.  "  Rom.  8 :  o2.  \ 

16  I 


The  Atonement 

cost  him  his  life.  "Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  himself 
a  ransom  for  all."^*  Also,  "It  is  Christ  Jesus 
that  died,  yea  rather  that  was  raised  from  the 
dead,  who  is  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us."^^  He  suffered  for  us, 
and  by  his  stripes  we  are  healed.^^  The  sufferings 
of  the  Christ  in  the  flesh  were  human,  hence  we 
can  form  some  conception  of  them.  They  were 
absolutely  the  result  of  his  voluntary  acceptance 
of  all  that  the  presence  of  sin  entails  upon  man 
in  this  and  in  the  future  life.  "But  now  once  at 
the  end  of  the  ages  hath  he  been  manifested  to  put 
away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself."^''  "They 
culminated,  on  the  one  hand,  in  an  agonizing  and 
ignominious  death ;  on  the  other,  in  an  unfathom- 
able depth  of  spiritual  suffering,"  wliich  sweeps 
clear  of  human  comprehension,  when  for  a  mo- 
ment, as  it  were,  even  God  seemed  to  have  with- 
drawn his  favor  from  the  sufferer. 

But  as  to  the  cost  to  the  Father,  the  Bible  is 
strangely  silent,  and  man  is  surely  left  without 
the  power  to  conceive  what  it  implies.  It  is  a 
mystery  which  the  angels  desired  to  look  into. 
But,  suffice  it  to  say,  the  cost  was  such,  coupled 

•♦I.  Tim.  2:6.         "I.  Pet.  2:  21-24.  a'Heb.  9:26. 

3«Rom.  8:34. 

2  17 


The  Atonement 

with  the  sacrifice,  that  in  the  very  highest  degree 
it  was  a  satisfactory  ransom  to  the  Divine  Majesty, 
of  such  efficacy  as  to  atone  for  the  world's  sin. 
The  divine  government  was  vindicated,  the  maj- 
esty of  the  law  sustained,  justice  satisfied,  and 
man  reconciled  to  God.  As  Bishop  Butler  well 
says :  "If  the  Scripture  has,  as  surely  it  has,  left 
this  matter  of  the  satisfaction  of  Christ  myste- 
rious, left  somewhat  in  it  unrevealed,  all  conject- 
ures about  it  must  be,  if  not  evidently  absurd, 
yet,  at  least,  uncertain/'  But  this  we  know,  God 
accepts  the  ransom  and  man  is  redeemed. 


18 


CHAPTER  II. 

Priesthood  of  Christ. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  is  chiefly 
devoted  to  the  high  priesthood  of  Christ,  serves  as 
a  key  to  explain  the  relation  of  the  priesthood 
with  its  sacrifices,  under  the  Old  Testament,  to 
Christ  Jesus  as  high  priest  under  the  New  Tes- 
tament or  in  the  New  Covenant.  "For  if  the  blood 
of  goats  and  bulls,  and  the  ashes  of  a  heifer, 
sprinkling  them  that  have  been  defiled,  sanctify 
unto  the  cleanness  of  the  flesh:  how  much  more 
shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through  the  eternal 
spirit  offered  himself  without  blemish  unto  God, 
cleanse  your  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve 
the  living  God?  And  for  this  cause  he  is  the 
mediator  of  a  new  covenant,  that  a  death  having 
taken  place  for  the  redemption  of  the  transgres- 
sions that  were  under  the  first  covenant,  they  that 
have  been  called  may  receive  the  promise  of  the 
eternal   inheritance."^      It   was    foreign    to    the 

>Heb.  9:13-15. 

19 


The  Atonement 

thought  of  a  Jew  that  God  could  be  approached 
in  any  other  way  than  by  sacrifice.  Hence,  under 
the  law,  the  priest  and  his  sacrifices  constituted 
the  chief  factor  in  Hebrew  worship.  "And  ac- 
cording to  the  law,  I  may  almost  say,  all  things 
are  cleansed  with  blood,  and  apart  from  the  shed- 
ding of  blood  there  is  no  remission."^ 

1.  In  the  New  Covenant,  Christ  is  both  high 
priest  and  sacrifice,  himself  the  victim,  self- 
offered,  "who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all."^  He 
was  "made  perfect  through  suffering."  His  life 
was  one  of  trial.  Dark  clouds  often  enveloped 
him  as  his  sacred  feet  pressed  the  rugged  steeps 
about  the  blue  Galilee,  the  Jordan  plains,  and 
the  rock-ribbed  Judean  hills.  His  was  a  life  of 
perfect  self -surrender  and  sacrifice  to  the  loving 
service  of  his  brethren,  in  trustful  obedience  to 
his  Father's  will;  but  his  sweet  and  holy  sub- 
mission to  death  on  the  cross  for  a  lost  world, 
including  his  betrayer  and  murderers,  was  his 
crowning  glory,  and  gave  the  broadest  possible 
expression  of  his  obedience  and  undying  love.  In 
this  tragedy  on  Calvary  culminated  his  offering 
for  sin,  and  settled  forever  its  completeness.     In 

» neb.  9:22.  'I.  Tim.  2:6. 

20 


The  Atonement 

this  tragedy,  the  divine  condemnation  of  sin  fell 
upon  Christ  and  is  exhausted  hy  his  death.  This 
is  the  significant,  -ultimate  fact  of  his  death,  and 
makes  it  sin-annulling,  and  this,  we  might  say, 
contains  the  gist  of  the  apostolic  theory  of  the 
atonement. 

2.  Christ  as  high  priest  is  out  of  the  ordinary. 
He  was  not  a  member  of  the  family  of  Levi,  but 
of  Judah,  therefore  not  a  priest  by  inheritance; 
but,  like  Melchisedec,  a  priest  of  the  most  high 
God,  "named  of  God  a  high  priest  after  the  order 
of  Melchisedec."*  In  the  sacred  Scriptures,  ever}^- 
where,  and  especially  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, when  reference  is  made  to  his  priestly  char- 
acter, special  regard  is  had  to  his  personal  quali- 
fication for  the  high  priesthood.  His  divine  and 
human  nature  is  especially  brought  out  and  set 
in  a  positive  light.  The  first  chapter  of  this  Epis- 
tle is  chiefly  devoted  to  Christ,  and  sets  forth  his 
perfect  fitness  to  represent  the  family  of  mankind, 
as  its  high  priest  at  the  sacrificial  altar,  its  media- 
tor, intercessor,  and  advocate  at  the  court  of 
heaven.  His  name  is  above  every  other  name,  his 
nature,  human  and  divine,  "God  manifest  in  the 

*Heb.  5:10. 

21 


The  Atonement 

flesh/'  the  Godhead  bodily  in  him.  This  divine 
human  personality,  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  head  of 
our  race,  presents  himself  as  the  sacrificial  victim 
for  sin  on  our  behalf.  The  act  was  strictly  volun- 
tary. "I  lay  it  down  of  myself."^  His  soul  was 
made  an  offering  for  sin.  ^^When  thou  shalt  make 
his  soul  an  offering  for  sin."®  Here  Christ,  in  the 
analogy  of  the  Old  Testament  sacrifice,  is  the  vic- 
tim, surrendering  himself  to  death,  and  confessing 
sin,  not  his  own,  but  of  man,  and  freely  accepting 
this  awful  penalty  passed  upon  us,  knowing  that 
it  is  just.  "Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins 
once,  the  righteous  for  the  unrighteous,  that  he 
might  bring  us  to  God ;  being  put  to  death  in  the 
flesh."^ 

3.  The  blood  of  the  victim  under  the  law  was 
recognized  as  the  life,  and  in  it  centered  the  aton- 
ing merit  of  the  sacrifice.  So  also  under  the  new 
covenant,  all  who  enter  into  Christ  and  are  thus 
saved,  are  represented  as  having  been  sprinkled 
by  the  blood  of  Christ.  "Unto  obedience  and 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ."^  "For 
ye  are  not  come  unto  a  mount  that  might  be 
touched,     .     .     .     but  ye  are  come  unto  mount 

•  John  10 :  18.  '  I.  Pet.  3:18.  » I.  Pet.  1 : 2. 

•Isa.53:10. 

22 


The  Atonement 

Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  innumerable  hosts  of 
angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the 
firstborn  who  are  enrolled  in  heaven,  and  to  God 
the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  mediator  of  a  new 
covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling  that 
.speaketh  better  than  that  of  Abel."^  Jesus  him- 
self emphasizes  this  new-covenant  relation  of  the 
believer  in  the  Last  Supper  when,  with  cup  in 
hand,  he  says,  "For  this  is  my  blood  of  the  cove- 
nant, which  is  shed  for  many  unto  remission  of 
sins."  Thus  each  believer  is  commanded  to  eat 
of  the  body,  broken,  and  to  drink  of  the  blood, 
shed,  of  the  atoning  sacrifice,  the  Son  of  God.  And 
as  the  great  High  Priest,  in  the  power  and  might 
of  that  blood,  he  has  passed  into  heaven  and  be- 
come the  world's  mediator  and  advocate  forever, 
at  the  court  of  heaven.  "For  Christ  entered  not 
into  a  holy  place  made  with  hands,  .  .  .  but 
into  heaven  itself,  now  to  appear  before  the  face 
of  God  for  us."^**  And  thus  the  resurrected 
Christ  and  his  blood  shed,  ever  constitute  a  true 
and   living  bond  of  union,   forever  uniting  the 

•  Heb.  12: 18-24.  ">Heb.  9:  24. 

23 


The  Atonement 

whole  family  of  man  to  man  and  to  the  fatherhood 
of  God. 

Therefore,  the  life  lived  by  our  blessed  Lord  in 
perfect  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Father,  and  his 
voluntary  death  upon  the  cross,  thereby  vindicat- 
ing the  majesty  of  the  divine  government  and 
meeting,  full  and  complete,  the  claims  of  divine 
Justice,  accomplished  the  atonement  made  for  the 
sins  of  all  men.  Paul,  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians,  first  chapter,  in  classic  style,  sets  forth 
the  true  import  of  the  atonement  in  its  broadest 
and  most  comprehensive  sense.  He  declares:  "It 
was  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father  that  in  him 
should  all  fulness  dwell;  and  through  him  to 
reconcile^^  [atone]  ^^  all  things  unto  himself,  hav- 
ing made  peace  through  the  blood  of  his  cross; 
.  .  .  whether  things  upon  the  earth,  or  things 
in  the  heavens."  In  this  twentieth  verse  is  con- 
tained the  gist  of  the  atonement,  and  from  it  radi- 
ates the  many  beautiful  shades  of  meaning  and  its 
effects,  in  which  the  term  is  used  in  the  chapter. 
(1)  "Meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of 
the  saints  in  light" ;^^    (2)    delivered  from  the 

"Col.  1:19,20. 

»»  Three  forms  of  the  word  in  Greek  are  used,  the  noun,  the 
verb,  and  the   intensive  f orm  —  KaToAAov^,  xaTaAAdaaw, 

aiTOKaraWdTTUi. 

'»  Col.  1:12. 

24 


The  Atonement 

power  of  darkness  and  translated  into  the  king- 
dom of  the  Son  of  his  love;^*  (3)  "redemption, 
the  forgiveness  of  our  sins";^^  (4)  promise  of  a 
resurrection  and  life  from  the  dead;^^  (5)  making 
peace  by  the  blood  of  his  cross ;^^  (6)  the  removal 
of  blame  and  taking  away  of  reproof  ;^^  (7)  the 
winning  back  of  lost  love;^^  (8)  human  suffering 
in  fellowship  with  the  afflictions  of  Christ  inter- 
preted;^** and,  finally,  the  climax  is  reached  by 
making  known  "what  is  the  riches  of  the  glory  of 
this  mystery  .  .  ..  which  is  Christ  in  you,  the 
hope  of  glory."^^ 

Thus  the  effect  of  the  atonement  sweeps  out  of 
the  way  every  obstacle,  and  eliminates  all  estrange- 
ment between  God  and  man,  introduced  by  sin. 
It  is  God's  panacea  for  destroying  the  works  of  the 
devil.  For,  "to  this  end  was  the  Son  of  God  mani- 
fested that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil."  Understood  in  its  true  spiritual  reality 
and  meaning,  the  blood  of  the  cross  reveals  to  man 
the  true  nature  of  his  guilt  and  his  relation  to 
God.  It  also  reveals  to  him  God's  love,  and  love's 
triumph  over  sin,  thus  winning  back  to  God  the 
lost  love  of  our  fallen  race. 

»*  Col.  1 :  13.       ' « V.  13.  "V.  22.  «« V.  24. 

"V.  14.  «'V.  20.  ''V.  21.  "^V.  27. 

25 


The  Atonement 

Thus  two  ends  are  accomplished  by  the  atone- 
ment; namely,  the  divine  government  vindicated 
and  man  reconciled  to  God.  Both  in  the  life  and 
in  the  death  of  Christ  was  God's  love  so  forcefully 
and  practically  manifested  to  man,  that  he  dis- 
covered a  friend  in  him  whom  he  had  always  mis- 
taken as  his  enemy,  and  man's  love  was  turned 
back  to  God.  This  is  what  we  are  to  understand 
by  that  oft-quoted  scripture,  '^God  was  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  reckoning 
unto  them  their  trespasses."-^  It  is  this  infinite, 
matchless  love  of  God  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ 
that  breaks  down  and  conquers  man's  rebellious, 
sinful  nature  and  develops  a  conscience  and  a 
character  in  him  akin  to  the  spirit  that  prompted 
the  atonement. 

"II.  Cor.  5: 19. 


26 


CHAPTER  III. 

Necessity  of  the  Atonement. 

The  central  truth  of  the  Christian  system  is 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God ;  and  his  mis- 
sion to  this  world,  and  work  in  relation  to  sin, 
are  the  supreme  theme  of  the  gospel.  To  eliminate 
or  ignore  the  first  is  to  destroy  the  system.  To 
deny  or  reject  the  second  is  to  make  the  gospel  of 
^^none  effect."  In  these  great  truths  center  all  of 
human  hope  and  man's  complete  deliverance  and 
freedom  from  sin  and  its  far-reaching  effects. 
Evil,  as  sin,  is  so  virulent  and  antagonistic  to 
good,  purity,  and  righteousness,  that  there  must 
be  a  moral  necessity  in  God,  demanding  its  just 
condemnation.  A  moral  necessity,  I  sa}^,  which 
springs  from  his  purity,  his  love,  his  goodness,  his 
wisdom,  his  justice,  yes,  from  every  moral  attri- 
bute of  his  exalted  nature;  for  sin,  as  such,  is 
transgression  of  law,  treason  and  rebellion  against 
the  government  of  God.     As  Father,  Judge,  and 

27 


The  Atonement 

Lord  of  the  universe,  sin  separates  man  from 
God,  and  severs  all  these  holy  relationships,  the 
severance  of  which,  and  its  effects  upon  the  sin- 
ner, are  what  the  Scriptures  call  the  wrath  of 
God,  coming  upon  the  children  of  disobedience.^ 

Now,  the  atonement  as  set  forth  elsewhere,  con- 
tains the  redemptive  price  paid  for  man's  redemp- 
tion, a  satisfaction  rendered  to  God  as  judge  and 
governor  of  the  universe.  But  it  implies  and  in- 
cludes much  more  than  a  "price  paid."  True,  in 
this  ransom,  "the  blood  of  Christ,"  paid,  is  the 
sacrifice,  the  oblation,  the  satisfaction  for  sin,  but, 
in  addition  to  all  this,  there  is  secured,  by  means 
of  the  atonement,  not  only  "reconciliation  of  the 
world  unto  himself,"  but  also,  through  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  regeneration  of  the  sinner  who  repents 
of  his  sins  and,  by  faith,  accepts  Christ  as  his  re- 
deeming Lord. 

It  is  an  unsolved  problem  which  is  the  greatest, 
the  act  done,  the  price  paid,  or  the  mysterious  pro- 
vision by  which  the  lost,  depraved  soul  of  man  is 
renewed,  purified,  and  born  into  the  kingdom  of 
God.  These  two  facts  are  so  interwoven  in  the 
atonement,  as  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures,  that  it 

»Eph.  5:6. 

28 


The  Atonement 

is  not  possible  to  treat  the  one  without  implpng 
the  existence  of  the  other.  The  necessity  of  the 
atonement  is  no  more  strongly  emphasized  in  the 
Scriptures  than  is  the  necessity  of  a  change  of 
heart.  The  world's  conscience  must  he  formed 
by  the  atonement,  to  which  it  makes  its  appeal,  if 
the  world  would  be  lifted  out  of  its  sins.  This  is 
one  phase  of  its  mission. 

If  man  had  been  redeemed  by  Christ's  death, 
and  at  the  same  time  no  expedient  provided  for 
his  moral  cleansing,  we  cannot  conceive  how  end- 
less happiness  and  eternal  glory  could  have  been 
his;  for  the  two  are  directly  at  war  with  each 
other.  Moral  impurity  is  sin,  and  ^'the  wages  of 
sin  is  death,"  death  to  happiness,  death  to  eternal 
glory.  True,  "Christ  died  for  our  sins,"'  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  "the  blood  of  Jesus  his  Son 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."^  Hence  in  the  "aton- 
ing sacrifice"  two  elements  are  manifest :  first,  its 
covering  of  sin  or  its  expiation ;  second,  its  cleans- 
ing element.  These  two  elements,  full  and  com- 
plete in  the  atonement,  meet  every  need  of  man  in 
respect  to  his  sin.  Indeed,  the  two  go  hand  in 
hand,  the  atonement  and  its  effects,  the  ransom 

«I.  Cor.  15:3.  'I.John  1:7, 

29 


Tlie  Atonement 

paid  and  the  end  accomplished,  the  covering  or 
expiation  of  sin,  the  vindication  of  the  govern- 
ment of  God,  the  lifting  up  of  fallen  humanity  in 
a  sense  that  enables  him  under  grace  to  form  a 
character  and  live  a  life  acceptable  to  God,  free- 
dom from  the  bondage  of  death,  hell,  and  the 
grave,  and  the  blessings  of  an  endless  life  in  im- 
mortality and  in  eternal  glory. 

The  different  theories  of  the  atonement,  which 
are  not  a  few,  will  be  considered  later  and  in 
a  separate  section,  but  here  it  is  proper  to  remark- 
that  while  these  theories  differ  widely  at  cer- 
tain points,  the  differences  are  more  of  opinion 
than  of  fact.  At  least,  there  are  two  essential 
facts  in  which  they  all  agree ;  namely,  that  man's 
estrangement  from  God  by  sin  was  the  occasion  of 
the  atonement,  and  that  Jesus  Christ,  offered  up, 
was  the  atoning  sacrifice.  A  clear  conception  of 
the  occasion,  and  the  necessity  of  the  atonement, 
with  its  effects  in  a  comprehensive  sense,  is  of 
primary  importance  to  an  intelligent  belief  and 
conformity  to  it. 

In  that  the  word  "atonement"  has  been  ex- 
plained in  the  opening  pages  of  this  treatise,  we 
pass  directly  to  the  fact  of  its  occasion.    In  this 

30 


The  Atonement 

realm,  theory  finds  no  place,  but  the  hard  problem 
of  facts  confronts  the  honest  investigator  in  his 
search  for  truth.  Human  sin  is  the  cause  of  the 
estrangement  between  God  and  man,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  occasion  of  the  atonement  on  the 
other.  Then,  does  this  occasion  exist  in  fact, 
that  is,  is  man  a  sinner?  That  there  is  a  prin- 
ciple of  evil  which  dominates  man  and  holds  him 
in  the  most  abject  servitude  is  a  fact  which  every 
page  of  human  history  verifies.  And  this  evil,  sin, 
is  just  as  broad  as  the  family  of  mankind.  It  is 
manifest,  not  only  in  the  life  of  every  generation 
of  the  family  of  Adam,  but  in  the  individual  life 
of  each  adult  person  composing  every  generation 
of  our  race.  It  rises  up  in  the  human  soul  in  the 
true  spirit  of  the  tyrant,  and,  under  its  sway,  its 
victim  tramples  under  foot  every  right  of  man, 
sets  at  naught  the  voice  of  conscience,  spurns  what 
he  recognizes, — "the  Word"  of  God, — and  sacri- 
fices his  reason  and  judgment  at  the  shrine  of 
what  he  knowingly  and  intelligently  recognizes  as 
evil  and  only  evil. 

This  brief  picture  is  not  overdrawn.  You  have 
met  it  and  I  have  met  it  in  the  world's  best  civili- 
zation, in  this  opening  decade  of  the  twentieth 

31 


The  Atonement 

centur}'.  And  what  is  most  appalling  is  the  facf 
that,  as  a  rule,  man  knows  that  the  bad  life  he  lives 
is  a  sin  against  God;  he  sins  against  light  and 
knowledge,  and  yet  he  regards  it  not,  but  hopes 
somehow  for  pardon  and  a  transformation  of  char- 
acter in  the  end.  Evil,  sin,  is  so  manifest  in  the 
history  of  our  race  that  even  if  the  Word  of  God 
were  silent  on  the  subject,  man  would  be  left  with- 
out excuse,  for  it  is  as  manifest  that  it  is  a  law 
of  the  universe  that  "evil  shall  slay  the  wicked," 
and  that  an  individual  or  people  who  refuse  to  have 
God  in  their  knowledge  God  gives  up  "unto  a 
reprobate  mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are  not 
fitting;  being  filled  with  all  unrighteousness, 
wickedness,  covetousness,  maliciousness;  full  of 
envy,  murder,  strife,  deceit,  malignity," — as  it  is 
that  the  law  of  gravitation  will  force  a  lump  of 
lead  through  a  vacuum.  Is  not  this  awful  truth 
now  being  retaught  by  the  facts  brought  to  light 
by  the  unearthing  of  the  buried  cities  of  the  an- 
cient world's  best  civilization?  Eead  a  lesson 
from  the  paintings  on  the  walls  of  the  pleasure- 
houses  in  Pompeii,  or  the  sad,  sad  story  of  hu- 
man sin,  whether  from  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates 
or  the  Nile. 


The  Atonement 

But  the  Word  of  God  is  not  silent  on  the  subject 
of  human  sin.  From  its  opening  pages  to  its 
close,  sin  and  its  condemnation  enter  into  the 
warp  and  woof  of  its  message.  "The  Lord  saw 
that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the 
earth,  and  that  ever7  imagination  of  the  thoughts 
of  his  heart  was  onl}  evil  continually/'*  "Is  not 
thy  wickedness  great  ?''^  "From  the  sole  of  the 
foot  even  unto  the  head  there  is  no  soundness  in 
it;  but  wounds,  and  bruises,  and  festering  sores."^ 
"The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  des- 
perately wicked."'  "Therefore,  as  through  one 
man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  through 
sin;  and  so  death  passed  unto  all  men,  for  that 
all  sinned."^  Thus  the  burden  of  God's  message 
to  man  is  either  directly  or  indirectly  connected 
with  human  sin,  and  from  what  man  knows  of 
the  direct  effects  of  it  on  his  race  in  this  life,  and 
from  what  the  Word  of  God  declares  it  to  be,  is 
surely  sufficient  to  show  an  occasion  for  an  atone- 
ment for  sin.  Sin  is  the  trap  in  which  man  is 
caught,  and  he  has  conscious  knowledge  that  he 
is  in  the  awful  trap,  by  actual  acts  of  vice  which 
are  forbidden  by  every  law  of  his  higher  nature, 

*Gen.6:5.  «Isa.  1:6.  » Rom.  5:12. 

•Job  22:5.  »Jer.  17:9. 

3  33 


Tlie  Atonement 

as  well  as  by  the  divine  Word.  He  knows  by  ac- 
tual experience  and  by  observation  that  "evil  shall 
slay  the  wicked/'  and  that  "the  wages  of  sin  is 
death."  This  is  the  condition  of  man  that  has 
confronted  every  son  of  Adam's  race,  and  is  both 
the  occasion  and  necessity  for  an  atonement.  The 
sin  must  be  covered  or  expiated,  and  a  new  life 
given  to  the  sinner,  or  the  penalty  for  sin  must  en- 
sue. 

Now  to  meet  these  two  necessary  conditions, 
Jesus  Christ  is  presented  in  the  Scriptures  as  the 
atoning  sacrifice.  Not  one  of  the  sacred  writers 
halted  or,  in  any  sense,  swerved  from  a  clear,  un- 
equivocal statement  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  "Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures,"^ 
and  that  "he  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live 
should  no  longer  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto 
him,  who  for  their  sakes  died  and  rose  again."^** 
In  the  gift  of  this  sacrifice  to  atone  for  the  world's 
sin,  the  Scriptures  represent  it  as  mutual  upon  the 
part  of  the  Father  and  the  Son.  "For  God  so 
loved  the  world,  that  lie  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  eternal  life."^^     "Christ  Jesus 

°I.  Cor.  15:3.  '<•  II.  Cor.  5: 15.  i'John3:16. 


The  Atonement 

who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all."^^  Criticism 
may  exhaust  itself  over  the  inexpediency  and  the 
injustice  of  one,  perfectly  innocent,  suffering  for 
the  guilty,  and  human  reason  may  set  up  its  pro- 
tests on  this  and  other  grounds,  against  the  con- 
ception of  the  atonement  as  plainly  taught  in  the 
Word  of  God,  yet  the  fact  nevertheless  stands  out 
distinct  and  clear  that  Christ  died,  "the  just  for 
the  unjust."  "Because  Christ  also  suffered  [died] 
for  sins  once,  the  righteous  for  the  unrighteous/'^^ 
It  matters  not  what  may  be  our  conception  of 
Christ's  suffering,  vicarious  or  not,  the  fact  never- 
theless stands  sure  that  he  offered  himself  up,  and 
thereby  atoned  for  the  world's  sin.  The  truth  is, 
it  was  not  the  suffering  but  the  personality,  Christ 
offered  up,  which  makes  the  atonement  vicarious. 
In  all  the  sacrificial  offerings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment it  was  not  the  suffering  of  the  victim  slain 
which  made  the  sacrifice  meritorious  for  sin,  but 
the  victim  offered  up.  Just  so  it  is  the  "Lamb 
of  God,  offered  up,"  that  takes  away  the  sin  of 
the  world. 

Man  may  not  be  able  to  fathom  all  the  mystery 
connected  with  the  atonement.     He  may  not  see 

»»I.  Tim.  2:6.  "I.  Pet.  3: 18. 


The  Atonement 

how  a  just  being,  under  the  divine  government, 
can  assume  the  responsibilit}^  of  an  unjust  being, 
and  lift  the  penalty  from  the  shoulders  of  the 
condemned,  in  accord  with  strict  justice,  but  if  the 
just  being  who  assumes  all  this  responsibility 
possesses  the  power  of  so  vitalizing  the  unjust  one, 
whom  he  befriends,  to  a  degree  that  his  unjust 
nature  departs  from  him  and  he  becomes  in  a 
sense  "a  new  creature,"  like  his  deliverer,  human 
reason  would  say  that  that  is  the  right  thing  to 
do.  All  this,  and  even  more,  is  implied  in  the 
atonement  as  set  forth  in  the  Gospels.  The  be- 
coming ^^heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with 
Christ,'*'^*  is  a  direct  result  of  Christ's  work  in  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  man's  sin.  It  is  pre- 
sumption to  presume  to  fathom  the  depths  of  the 
divine  nature,  yet  it  is  equally  presumptuous  to 
charge  God  with  folly  or  attribute  injustice  to 
him. 

No  doubt  the  fact  of  human  sin  was  before  the 
mind  of  God  from  eternity,  but  to  develop  in  the 
divine  government  in  time,  and  that  Christ,  "the 
Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world," 
as  an  atonement  for  sin,  was  to  meet  this  con- 
tingency in  time.    "But  now  once  at  the  end  of  the 

"Rom.  8:17. 

36 


Tlie  Atonement 

ages  hath  he  been  manifested  to  put  away  sin  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself."  This,  according  to  the 
Scriptures,  is  clear,  that  the  atonement,  the  sac- 
rifice is  in  the  personality  of  Christ  offered  up, 
upon  the  cross,  and  that  the  redemption  of  the 
world  is  its  effect. 

In  man's  sinful  state,  which  rendered  him  ut- 
terly helpless,  Christ  came  to  his  rescue  and  be- 
came his  substitute ;  and,  astounding  fact  as  it  is, 
he  died  for  sinners.  Man's  sin  created  or  pro- 
duced the  occasion  of  Christ's  voluntary  death. 
At  this  point,  unless  man's  eyes  are  holden,  he 
may  have  a  faint  conception  of  the  enormity  of 
sin ;  for,  is  it  possible  to  conceive  that  infinite  wis- 
dom, goodness,  and  justice  would  devise  a  scheme 
of  redemption  that  would  involve  the  sacrificial 
death  of  the  Son  of  God  unless,  in  the  divine  gov- 
ernment, in  relation  to  man's  moral  agency,  there 
existed  an  absolute  necessity  for  it  ? 

The  fact  that  the  atonement  is  God's  plan,  not 
man's,  of  saving  the  world,  lost  in  sin,  is  evi- 
dence that  it  is  necessary,  just,  wise,  and  good,  and 
in  strict  accord  with  the  divine  government.  In- 
deed, we  find  this  to  be  true,  that  the  Governor  of 
the  universe,  in  so  far  as  we  are  capable  of  seeing 

37 


The  Atonement 

and  knowing,  carries  forward  his  natural  adminis- 
tration in  the  affairs  of  the  world  by  atonements 
and  mediations,  and  his  moral  government,  ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures,  is  conducted  on  the 
same  principle.  Good  and  just  men  often  suffer 
on  account  of  the  rashness  and  injustice  of  evil- 
doers. This  is  often  of  necessity, — that  the  just 
and  good  suffer, — but  in  the  case  of  Christ  it  was 
voluntary;  and  unless  the  objector  to  the  atone- 
ment could  show  clearly  what  scheme  would  se- 
cure man's  deliverance  from  sin,  and  vouchsafe  to 
him  eternal  life  before  a  revelation  of  that  fact 
or  God's  scheme  to  do  so  was  made  known  to  man, 
he  would  be  utterly  incapable  of  passing  a  correct 
judgment  upon  the  scheme  after  it  was  revealed, 
and  especially  so  unless  he  could  show  that  God's 
scheme  is  out  of  accord  with  reason  and  fails  to 
accomplish  the  end  proposed.  We  repeat:  The 
atonement  is  God's  plan  to  save  men,  ruined  and 
lost  by  sin;  hence  its  necessity,  as  a  fact,  exists. 
Christ,  offered  iip,  is  the  atoning  sacrifice,  for 
surely,  if  there  was  any  atonement  in  his  mission 
and  work  among  men,  it  was  in  his  death. 

In  his  life-work,  up  to  his  agony  in  the  garden, 
there  was  nothing  priestly;  all  was  preparatory. 

38 


The  Atonement 

The  good,  pure,  noble  life  he  lived  was  just  such 
a  life  as  every  man  should  and  ought  to  live.  His 
deeds  of  kindness  and  mercy  were  such  as  the 
world  has  ever  needed,  but  there  was  no  atone- 
ment, no  ransom,  in  all  this.  As  an  example  and 
a  lesson  to  the  world  it  was  all-important.  It  all 
led  up  to  the  crowning  events  in  his  life,  yes,  the 
crowning  event  in  all  history,  when  he  assumed  the 
functions  of  the  priesthood,  made  his  soul  an  offer- 
ing for  sin,  entered  as  high  priest  into  the  holy  of 
holies,  and  as  priest  and  victim  offered  himself  up 
as  the  world's  sacrifice  for  its  sin,  and  passed  into 
heaven,  where  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  us.  So,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  death, 
without  Christ,  makes  no  atonement,  and  Christ, 
without  death,  makes  no  atonement,  but  Christ 
offered  up  is  God's  accepted  sacrifice  of  atone- 
ment for  the  world's  sin.  This  fact  cannot  be  too 
strongly  emphasized  and  too  intelligently  believed. 
It  is  the  extremely  narrow  limits  assigned  to  the 
atonement  by  one  class  of  theologians,  and  the  un- 
due latitudinarianism  by  another,  that  have  dis- 
torted the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  and  made 
it  offensive  to  man.  But,  as  presented  in  the  Word 
of  God,  it  is  strictly  in  accord  with  right  reason, 

39 


Tlie  Atonement 

and  proves  the  power  of  God  unto  the  salvation  of 
every  one  who  believes. 

In  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  it  must  be  under- 
stood and  definitely  stated  that  he  died  for  man's 
sin  and  not  for  his  own;  for  he  was  the  "sinless 
one"  of  our  race.  Also,  his  sufferings  were  not 
the  infliction  of  punishment  upon  the  innocent, 
instead  of  the  guilty.  His  sufferings  were  not 
punishment  as  such.  Man  remained  guilty,  Christ 
guiltless.  No  transfer  of  demerit  obtained.  At 
the  cross  beneath,  as  on  the  throne  above,  Christ 
forever  remained  and  remains  the  sinless  Son  of 
God;  but,  entering  into  humanity  willingly  and 
without  reserve,  he  took  "on  himself,"  as  one  has 
said,  "all  its  limitations,  burdens,  pains,  and  sor- 
rows." "Christ  lived  and  died  with  man  pnd  for 
man."^^  In  this  tragedy  he  was  both  substitute 
and  representative  for  man.  In  all  this,  there  is 
and  can  be  no  reflection  on  God  and  his  justice. 

Says  Dr.  Phillips  Brooks  in  his  reflections  on  this 
tragedy :  "My  friends,  far  be  it  from  me  to  read 
all  the  deep  mystery  that  is  in  this  picture.  Only 
this  I  know  is  the  burden  and  soul  of  it  all,  this 
truth,  that  sin  is  a  horrible,  strong,  positive  thing, 

»•  Van  Dyke's  "Gospel  for  a  World  of  Sin,"  p.  162. 
40 


The  Atonement 

and  that  not  even  divinity  grapples  with  him  and 
subdues  him  except  in  strife  and  pain.  What  pain 
may  mean  to  the  infinite  and  divine,  what  diffi- 
culty may  mean  to  omnipotence,  I  cannot  tell; 
only  I  know  that  all  that  they  could  mean,  they 
mean  here.  This  symbol  of  the  blood  bears  this 
great  truth, — which  has  been  the  power  of  salva- 
tion to  millions  of  hearts,  and  which  must  make 
this  conqueror  the  Saviour  of  your  hearts,  too, — 
the  truth  that  only  in  self-sacrifice  and  suffering 
could  even  God  conquer  sin.  Sin  is  never  so  dread- 
ful as  when  we  see  the  Saviour  with  that  blood 
upon  his  garments;  and  the  Saviour  is  never  so 
dear,  never  wins  so  utter  and  so  tender  a  love,  as 
when  we  see  what  it  has  cost  him  to  save  us.  Out 
of  that  love,  born  of  his  holy  suffering,  comes  the 
new  impulse  after  a  holy  life;  and  so  when  we 
stand  at  last,  purified  by  the  power  of  grateful 
obedience,  binding  our  holiness,  and  escape  from 
our  sin,  close  to  our  Lord's  struggle  with  sin  for 
us,  it  shall  be  said  of  us  that  we  have  washed  our 
robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb."i« 

No  doubt  there  is  much  in  the  plan  of  human 

»e Phillips  Brooks,  Sermons,  vol.  I.,  p.  53. 
41 


The  Atonement 

redemption,  as  conceived  by  the  Infinite  Father, 
and  completed  in  Christ's  death  upon  the  cross, 
hidden  in  deep  mystery,  due  to  the  limitations  of 
human  knowledge,  yet  this  is  plain,  that  the  sov- 
ereign Euler  of  the  universe  so  honors  the  moral 
law  by  which  he  governs  the  world  that  even  the 
"Son  of  his  love"  coming  into  union  and  com- 
munion with  man  could  not,  and  did  not  escape 
the  consequences  of  man's  sin ;  that  is,  he  did  not 
escape  from  suffering  in  lifting  the  burden  of  sin 
from  the  shoulders  of  the  sinner. 

Says  Dr.  Van  Dyke:  "But  because  our  sins 
deserved  punishment,  Christ,  having  become  one 
with  us,  endured  the  shame  and  the  cross,  poured 
out  his  soul  unto  death  and  was  numbered  with 
the  transgressors,  suffered  and  died  as  the  human 
life  of  God,  because  suffering  and  death  have 
justly  come  upon  the  world  of  sin."  Thus  this 
scriptural  view  of  the  atonement  puts  the  work  of 
Christ  in  a  vital  relation  to  man's  sin,  and  recog- 
nizes God's  condemnation  of  sin  as  a  real  thing, 
and  makes  a  real  and  intelligent  connection  be- 
tween the  death  of  Christ  and  man's  salvation. 
In  a  word,  it  is  the  only  intelligent  working  basis 
for  man's  hope  of  deliverance  from  sin.    Also,  this 

42 


The  Atonement 

view  of  the  atonement  forever  binds  men  to  Christ, 
making  them  ever  dependent  on  him.  Man's  only 
standing  before  God  is,  and  ever  must  be  in  the 
blood  of  the  crueifi.ed  One.  Clirist,  therefore,  is 
the  all  and  in  all,  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of 
the  world's  redemption. 


4S 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Theories  of  the  Atonement. 

The  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  set  forth  by 
man  in  theories  and  systems.  The  development 
of  theology  and  its  progress  are  recorded  in  the 
different  theories  that  have  obtained  and  swayed 
the  church  in  her  history.  The  sacred  Scriptures 
is  the  true  source  and  center,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, from  which  all  the  doctrines  of  the  church 
rise.  No  one  human  mind  is  sufficiently  broad 
and  penetrating  to  fathom  the  inexhaustible  foun- 
tain of  God's  Word.  As  a  result,  as  men  have 
looked  into  that  Word,  in  search  of  truth,  no  one 
has  seen  all  of  the  truth,  but  every  sincere  truth- 
seeker  who  has  looked  in  has  found  some  truth. 
On  that  same  truth,  he  has  constructed  his  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  and  formulated  his  theories. 
Hence,  the  correctness  of  his  doctrines  and  the 
validity  of  his  theories  always  depend  upon  the 
measure  of  his  insight  into  the  Word  of  God,  and 

44 


The  Atonement 

the  degree  of  clearness  of  vision  he  possesses  in 
interpreting  the  divine  oracle.  Therefore,  error 
in  doctrine  or  in  theory  is  more  the  result  of  a 
lack  of  ability  to  comprehend  the  deep  things  of 
God's  Word  than  of  moral  perversity  upon  the 
part  of  the  theologian. 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  not  an  ex- 
ception to  the  foregoing  statements.  The  church, 
in  all  her  history,  has  definitely  recognized  the 
doctrine  of  the  atonement  to  have  its  roots  deeply 
centered  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  while,  accord- 
ing to  the  Eevised  Version,  the  word  "atonement" 
does  not  occur  once  in  the  New  Testament,  yet 
true  scholarship  and  correct  criticism  see  clearly 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  as  forcefully 
and  as  distinctly  taught  in  the  New  Testament  as 
in  the  Old.  Hence  the  doctrine,  as  such,  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  not  a  mere  quibble  over  words, 
but  is  a  matter  of  fact.  The  straight  language  of 
the  Holy  Oracle  is :  "For  I  delivered  unto  you  first 
of  all  that  which  also  I  received,  how  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  scriptures ;  and 
that  he  was  buried ;  and  that  he  hath  been  raised 
on  the  third  day  according  to  the  scriptures."^ 
From  this  declaration  not  one  of  the  apostles  de- 

» I.  Cor.  15:  3. 

45 


The  Atonement 

serted,  but  all  concurred  in  it.  Behind  this  fact 
the  early  Christians  did  not  attempt  to  go;  but 
clear  and  direct  as  the  Word  of  God  is  on  this  sub- 
ject, yet  in  course  of  time  men  began  to  attempt  an 
explanation,  and,  as  a  result,  many  theories  of 
the  atonement  have  been  developed  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  church.  Of  these  theories,  it  may 
be  said  in  truth,  no  one  of  them  contains  all  the 
truth,  and  no  one  of  them  is  destitute  of  some 
truth.  In  setting  forth  these  theories  in  this  brief 
treatise,  only  the  more  prominent  can  be  brought 
to  view ; 

I.     The  patristic  theory. 

The  sacrificial  conception  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  the  language  used  by  the  apostles  in  the  New 
Testament  were  strictly  adhered  to  by  the  church 
fathers  from  the  days  of  the  apostles  down  to  and 
after  the  Council  of  Nice.  They,  however,  failed 
to  express  their  own  views  definitely  on  the  sub- 
ject, but,  as  a  rule,  it  is  manifest  that  they  more 
or  less  clearly  held  to  and  taught  the  doctrine  of 
expiation  and  satisfaction  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
which  in  a  sense  subsequently  became  the  faith  of 
the  whole  church,  down  to  the  days  of  Anselm, 
who  died  in  1109. 

46 


The  Atonement 

The  jewel  in  the  apologetical  literature  of  tlie 
fathers  is  the  Epistle  to  Diogenetus.  It  rivals  in 
spirit  and  impressiveness  all  early  writings  of  this 
class.  On  the  atonement,  it  is  clear  and  distinct. 
"He  sent  him  %s  sending  God'  and  as  a  man  unto 
men."^  "God  in  pity  took  on  him  our  sins,  and 
himself  parted  with  his  own  Son  as  a  ransom  for 
us,  the  holy  for  the  lawless,  the  just  for  the  un- 
just. ...  In  whom  was  it  possible  for  us 
lawless  and  ungodly  men  to  have  been  justified, 
save  only  in  the  Son  of  God?  Oh,  the  sweet  ex- 
change .  .  .  that  the  iniquity  of  many  should 
be  concealed  in  one  righteous  man."^ 

In  the  second  century,  Iren^us  of  Asia  Minor 
came  into  church  history.  He  was  intensely  prac- 
tical in  mind,  somewhat  Johannine  in  thought  and 
well  versed  in  the  Scriptures.  The  redemption  of 
the  world  through  the  incarnate  Christ  is  the  cen- 
tral truth  created  in  his  system.  In  treating  of 
the  atonement,  he  says,  "The  death  of  Christ  was 
a  substitution  for  our  death,  and  that  he  redeemed 
us  with  his  own  blood  and  gave  his  soul  for  our 
souls  and  his  own  flesh  for  our  flesh,"*  or  words  to 
that  effect.     "He  gave  his  life  as  a  ransom  for 

«  Epls.  to  Dio?enetuR,  C.  7.       » C.  9.       *  Adv.  Hiier  V.  Pref. 

47 


The  Atonement 

those  in  captivity."  That  is,  man  was  in  captivity 
to  Satan,  and  Christ  as  high  priest  propitiated 
God,  "dying  that  man  might  come  out  of  con- 
demnation." Christ's  obedience  is  his  central 
thought,  by  which  obedience  he  canceled  Adam's 
disobedience,  destroyed  sin,  and  inspired  man  with 
a  new  spiritual  life,  thereby  overcoming  death, 
hell,  and  the  grave. 

Irenaeus  does  not  use  the  term  "ransom"  as  a 
price  paid  to  Satan  for  man's  redemption,  a 
thought  which  came  later  in  church  history,  but 
recognized  Christ,  offered  up  upon  the  cross,  as  a 
vicarious  sacrifice  for  man's  sin.  With  him  the 
atonement  is  objective  and  necessary,  and  has  a 
very  essential  place  in  the  moral  order  of  God's 
government,  which  sin,  through  Satan,  has  in- 
vaded. 

In  the  third  century,  Origen  takes  up  the  work 
of  Christ  as  taught  by  Irenssus  and  the  current 
views  of  Christ's  conquest  over  Satan,  by  means  of 
which  man  is  delivered  from  the  powers  of  evil. 
True,  this  great  preacher  touches  on  that  vague 
conception  of  "a  deceit  practiced  upon  Satan," 
who  is  represented  "as  accepting  the  soul  of  Christ 
as  a  ransom,  not  knowing  that  he  could  not  en- 

48 


The  Atonement 

dure  a  sinless  soul."^  But  Origen  was  too  broad 
to  be  dominated  by  such  vagaries.  The  death  of 
Christ  with  him  was  a  vicarious  death  in  behalf 
of  the  race,  and  the  Old  Testament  sacrifices  were 
typical  of  the  tragical  death  of  Christ  on  Calvary 
for  the  sin  of  the  world.  In  his  thought  the  atone- 
ment is  necessary,  the  value  of  which  is  measured 
only  by  the  value  of  the  blood  shed. 

In  the  fourth  century  the  doctrines  of  Origen 
and  his  predecessor  on  the  atonement  were  taken 
up  and  developed  by  Gregory  of  Nyssa.  He  de- 
veloped the  conception  of  a  "ransom"  paid  by 
Christ  to  Satan  for  the  redemption  of  man.  His 
theory  was  that  God  would  deprive  Satan  of  all 
ground  for  complaints  of  injustice  in  dealing  with 
him.  While  God  possessed  the  power  to  rescue 
man  from  the  deceiver,  arbitrarily,  to  whom  he 
had  voluntarily  surrendered,  yet  he  would  not, 
but  proposed  to  deliver  him  by  purchase.  Christ 
was  the  ransom  proposed.  Satan  was  attracted  by 
Christ's  miraculous  power  in  working  miracles, 
and  was  willing  to  surrender  man  in  exchange  for 
Christ.  But  Jesus  being  veiled  in  humanity, 
Satan  was  deceived  and  lost  all,  for  he  could  nof 

» E.  g.  C.  Celcum,  VII.  17, 1.  31. 
4  49 


The  Atonement 

endure  God  unveiled,  neither  was  he,  a  deceiver, 
entitled  to  any  ransom;  therefore,  it  was  given 
to  God,  not  of  need  or  demand  of  price,  but  be- 
cause by  the  incarnation,  Christ,  coming  in  touch 
with  man's  sin,  could  purify  him  and  make  him 
holy.  It  is  surpassingly  strong,  that  even  Augus- 
tine resuscitated  the  vague  and  unscriptural 
theory  of  a  relation  of  the  death  of  Christ  to 
Satan.  After  man's  voluntary  self-surrender, 
Satan's  dominion  existed  of  right,  but  in  that  he 
inflicted  death  upon  Christ,  the  sinless  one,  in 
right  he  forfeited  that  dominion. 

The  interpretation  of  this  phase  of  the  atone- 
ment by  these  men  makes  Jesus  the  price  paid 
to  Satan  for  man's  redemption.  Their  theory  was, 
God  paid  the  price  to  Satan  for  man's  release,  and, 
as  a  result,  man  was  set  free.  But  the  whole 
scheme  was  a  deception.  In  the  first  place,  Satan 
had  deceived  man  and  enslaved  him.  God  now, 
in  turn,  tricked  the  devil  and,  by  proposing  and 
giving  the  life  of  "his  only  begotten  Son,"  se- 
cured man's  release.  They  found  all  this  from 
such  passages  as  Colossians  2:15.  and  Hebrews 
2 :  14.  This  strange  and  unscriptural  interpreta- 
tion dominated  many  theologians  and  influenced 

60 


The  Atonement 

the  church  for  almost  a  thousand  years.  With 
these  church  fathers  such  vagaries  must  have  been 
a  matter  of  opinion  only,  and  their  interpreta- 
tions on  that  phase  of  the  atonement  only  specula- 
tion, and  not  the  result  of  their  clear,  intelligent 
faith  in  the  sacrificial  death  of  the  Son  of  God. 
This  is  quite  evident  from  their  views  on  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  the  atonement.  As  we  have  al- 
ready said  of  Irengeus,  Origen,  and  Gregory,  so 
also  we  may  say  of  Augustine.  He  does  not  con- 
fine himself  to  this  phase  or  dogma  of  the  atone- 
ment. God's  righteousness  prompted  his  punish- 
ment of  sin.  He  finds  two  reasons  for  Christ'^ 
incarnation:  First,  "that  by  suffering  all  things 
for  us,  he  might  deliver  us  from  the  bonds  of 
Bin";  and,  secondly,  "that  he  might  set  us  free 
from  its  power.''^  "He  took  on  himself,  being 
without  guilt,  our  punishment,  that  he  might  put 
away  our  guilt,  and  put  an  end  to  our  punish- 
ment."^ 

As  to  the  Greek  and  Latin  fathers,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  atonement,  in  their  theology,  occu- 
pies quite  a  subordinate  place  in  contrast  with  the 
relation  of  Christ  and  his  work  to  the  deliverance 

«DeVeraReliff.  1.16. 

'History  of  Christian  Doctrine,  p.  180-1. 

51 


Tlie  Atonement 

of  man  from  the  power  and  subjective  conse- 
quences of  sin.  Even  Augustine  is  not  wholly  an 
exception  to  this.  This  is  to  be  accounted  for  in 
that  they  seem  to  grasp  in  one  conception  the 
atonement,  "Christ  lifted  up/'  and  its  effects  upon 
man  in  relation  to  sin.  Another  cause  for  this 
may  be  found,  especially  with  the  Greek,  in  his 
high  conception  or  sense  of  the  power  of  sin  and 
its  dire  spiritual  effects  upon  man,  as  contrasted 
with  his  low  sense  or  feeling  of  guilt.  Another 
dominant  idea  in  Greek  theology  is  the  soul's  deep 
need  of  enlightenment  and  the  regaining  of  that 
knowledge  of  God  which  he  lost  through  sin.  For 
all  these  losses  and  crosses  which  are  the  effects 
of  sin,  these  fathers  found  a  full  and  complete 
panacea  in  the  vicarious  atonement,  in  some  sense, 
of  Christ,  the  world's  Eedeemer  and  Saviour. 

2.     The  Anselmic  theory. 

The  interpretations  given  by  the  church  fathers 
in  explanation  of  the  atonement  had  grown  old 
and  become  unsatisfactory  to  men  who  thought 
for  themselves.  In  this  state  of  unrest,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  an  Italian  by  the  name  of  An- 
selm  arose.  He  was  a  man  of  letters  and  a  devout 
student  of  the  Scriptures.     He  was  not  satisfied 

52 


The  Atonement 

with  the  interpretations  which  had  obtained  of 
old  relative  to  the  atonement,  so  he  set  to  work  to 
find  a  more  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem. 
He  scientifically  defined  the  vie^v^s  which  had  been 
implicitly  received  by  the  fathers  in  his  "Cur  Deus 
Homo/'  He  sees  the  ground  of  the  incarnation 
in  the  absolute  need  of  an  atonement  for  sin.  He 
held  to  the  view  that  the  atonement  by  Christ  was 
actively  a  vicarious  satisfaction,  but  not  passively 
so ;  and  that  sin  is  debt,  and  under  the  divine  gov- 
ernment it  must  of  necessity  be  paid,  which  pay- 
ment, implying  the  guilt  of  sin,  is  suffering,  and 
must  be  endured.  He  assumed  that  sin  against 
an  infinite  being  was  an  infinite  debt.  A  finite 
being  cannot  pay  an  infinite  debt.  Hence  the  in- 
finite must  become  incarnate,  "God  manifest  in  the 
flesh,"  if  the  debt  would  be  paid.  Christ  died,  and 
on  the  cross  he  paid  the  debt,  and  allows  man  to 
go  free.  Anselm  and  his  followers  clearly  recog- 
nize the  twofold  nature  of  Christ,  human  and 
divine,  and  find  in  him  all  the  legal  qualifications 
for  his  office  as  high  priest,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  full  and  complete  sacrifice  to  meet  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  divine  government. 

Says  Dr.  Fisher :    "Anselm's  view  is  that  a  debt 

53 


The  Atonement 

is  due  to  God,  and  that  amends  must  be  made  for 
the  dishonor  to  him.  This  satisfaction  is  not  said 
to  be  the  vicarious  endurance  of  the  penalty  of 
sin.  No  stress  is  laid  on  the  sufferings  of  Christ. 
It  is  not  his  passive  obedience  that  satisfies ;  nor  is 
it  the  active  obedience  of  Christ  simply  consid- 
ered. It  is  the  supererogatory  gift  of  his  life.  It 
was  an  act  of  obedience,  but  a  supererogatory  act 
of  obedience.  Therein  lies  its  merit,  its  moral 
value,  its  capacity  to  procure  forgiveness  for  the 
ill  deserving.''®  The  best  of  the  schoolmen  agreed 
with  Anselm  on  the  moral  necessity  for  the  atone- 
ment, but  held  also  that  God  possessed  the  power 
to  forgive  sins  by  mere  will.  This  likely  grew  out 
of  their  metaphysical  notions  of  omnipotence. 

Also,  the  ancient  Waldenses  and  the  reformers 
before  the  Reformation  adhered  strictly  to  the 
Anselmic  views  of  the  atonement,  and  so  forceful 
and  vital  is  his  doctrine  that  it  has  subsequent!}^, 
with  perhaps  some  slight  modifications,  been 
adopted  in  the  whole  Christian  church.  The  creed 
form  is,  "Jesus  Christ  who,  when  we  were  enemies, 
merited  justification  for  us  by  his  most  sacred  pas- 
sion on  the  tree,  and  satisfied  the  Father  for  us.''® 

•Hist,  of  Christian  Doctrine,  p.  221. 
"Dec  Cont.  Trent  Less.  6,  Cii.  7. 

54 


The  Atonement 

3.     Tho  ethical  theory. 

This  moral  influence  theory  is  the  development 
of  Abelard's  views  and  teaching  of  the  atonement. 
According  to  this  great  man,  God's  perfections 
consisted  in  his  benevolence  and  liberty  of  indif- 
ference. He  taught  that  sin  could  be  abolished 
simply  by  the  volition  of  the  Almighty  and  the 
sinner  restored  to  the  favor  of  God  at  will.  This 
theory  teaches  that  in  the  death  of  Christ  there  is 
no  penal  element,  and  it  is  not  intended  in  any 
sense  to  be  a  satisfaction  of  divine  justice  for  sin. 
He  did  not  come  into  the  world  to  die  for  sin,  but, 
being  in  the  world,  he  died,  and  died  the  death  of 
a  martyr.  But  the  death  of  Christ  is  not  with- 
out merit,  which  merit  is  effective  upon  the  hearts 
and  characters  of  men,  in  touching,  softening,  and 
disposing  them  to  righteousness.  Wendt  con- 
tends that  to  Christ  "death  was  an  after-thought, 
that  he  began  his  public  ministry  with  no  antici- 
pation of  such  a  doom;  ...  it  was  only  in 
the  last  months  of  his  life  that  the  certainty  of  his 
death  in  conflict  with  the  world  began  to  dawn 
upon  him."i^  With  Abelard,  Christ's  death  had 
a  double  purpose :  first,  to  subdue  rebellion  in  man, 

»» studies  in  Theology,  by  Denny,  p.  134. 


The  Atonement 

and,  secondly,  to  remove  his  guilty  fears  by  the 
transcendent  exhibition  of  divine  love,  as  benevo- 
lence is  the  only  divine  attribute  active  in  human 
redemption. 

Socinus  accepted  the  views  of  Abelard,  but 
found  an  additional  reason  for  the  death  of 
Christ,  by  which  he  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  by  his  own  resurrection.  Dr.  F.  D. 
Maurice  taught  that  Christ's  sufferings  and  death 
were  the  only  example  of  a  complete  self-surren- 
der of  the  spirit  and  body  to  God  accomplished, 
the  design  of  which  was  "to  illustrate  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-sacrifice  as  due  from  all  God's  intelli- 
gent creatures  to  him  who  made  them."^^  Dr. 
Bushnell  and  Dr.  J.  McLeod  Campbell  are  earnest 
advocates  of  this  theory.  Dr.  Bushnell's  concep- 
tion of  the  death  of  Christ  was  that  he  "suffered 
with  us  through  sympathy  and  fellowship,"  by 
which  he  obtains  a  moral  power  over  men,  and 
through  love  and  example  inspires  spiritual  life 
and  love  in  them.  His  best  thought  on  this  subject 
is  found  in  his  treatise  on  "Vicarious  Sacrifice,** 
where  he  gives  his  views  of  the  moral  view  of  the 
atonement,  "the  renewing  influence  upon  charac- 

"  Theological  Essays,  London,  1853. 
56 


The  Atonement 

ter  which  flows  out  from  Christ,  from  sympathy 
and  suffering  with  us,  and  his  whole  collective 
manifestation." 

According  to  Dr.  Campbell,  Christ,  in  his  suf- 
ferings and  death,  has  so  identified  himself  with 
man  as  a  sinner  and  the  righteous  law  he  has 
broken,  "that  he  has  offered  up  to  God  a  perfect 
confession  and  adequate  repentance  to  God  of 
man's  sins.  Christ  made  an  expiatory  confession 
of  man's  sin,  which  was  a  perfect  amen  in  hu- 
manity to  the  judgment  of  God  on  the  sin  of 
man."^^  Christ  was  one  with  God  respecting 
man's  sin,  in  his  condemnation  and  in  his  love  to 
the  sinner.  In  his  self-sacrifiee  and  his  willingly 
and  freely  submitting  to  the  death  of  the  cross, 
he  expressed  "the  ideal  and  representative  repent- 
ance of  mankind  for  sin."^^  While  Dr.  Campbell 
is  classed  with  the  advocates  of  the  Moral  Theory 
of  the  atonement,  he  surely  goes  beyond  it.  He 
makes  the  incarnation  and  death  of  Christ  neces- 
sary, that  he  might  personally  "realize  God's  feel- 
ing and  man's  need."  He  adds,  "As  our  Lord 
alone  truly  tasted  death,  so  to  him  alone  had 
death  its  perfect  meaning  as  the  wages  of  sin,  for 

"The  Nature  of  the  Atonement,  3d  Ed.,  p.  136. 
"  Ibid,  p.  247  ff. 

57 


The  Atonement 

to  him  alone  was  there  full  entrance  into  the 
mind  of  God  towards  sin,  and  perfect  unity  with 
that  mind."i* 

4.     The  governmental  theory. 

This  theory  is  purely  legal,  and  sets  forth  the 
fact  that  the  law  under  which  man  is  condemned, 
both  in  precept  and  penalty,  is  the  product  of  the 
divine  mind,  and,  as  such,  it  is  God's  prerogative, 
as  moral  governor  of  the  universe,  to  relax  the 
penalty  at  will  and  free  the  condemned.  Law 
not  enforced  and  penalty  not  inflicted,  but  pardon 
granted  instead,  weaken  government  and  remove 
a  strong  motive  to  obedience;  therefore,  to  main- 
tain good  government,  the  benevolence  of  God 
demands  that  as  a  pre-condition  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  any  sinner,  an  example  of  punishment,  as 
penalty  due  man's  sins,  be  set  before  the  race  in 
the  death  of  Christ  as  man's  substitute  for  sin. 
Thus  God  gives  to  man  the  assurance  by  example 
that  ^^the  wicked  shall  not  go  unpunished,"  and 
sin  not  escape  with  impunity.  While  Hugo 
Grotius  is  the  recognized  founder  of  this  theory, 
notwithstanding  its  defects,  it  has  had  many  vig- 
orous advocates,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America. 

"Ibid,  p.  302. 

58 


The  Atonement 

5.     The  mystical  theory  of  the  atonement. 

The  realistic  and  mystical  theories  of  the  atone- 
ment are  modifications  one  of  the  other.  Christ 
is  represented  as  the  head  of  the  race  and  a  typical 
man.  The  estrangement  between  God  and  man 
caused  by  sin  is  adjusted  by  Christ's  reconcilia- 
tion, which  is  accomplished  by  the  mysterious 
union  of  God  and  man  in  the  incarnation.  Thus 
the  ideal  man,  the  head  of  our  race,  in  his  mys- 
terious incarnation,  is  the  world's  reconciler  with 
God  and  the  adjuster  of  the  estrangement  between 
God  and  man.  This  view  of  the  atonement  may 
be  traced  from  the  days  of  the  Platonizing  father 
through  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Eeformation, 
down  to  the  days  of  Schleiermacher  and  his  dis- 
ciples among  the  modern  German  theologians. 
All  of  these  theories  of  the  atonement  named  have 
much  of  truth  in  them,  but  no  one  of  them  has 
all  the  truth,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  error;  they 
are  human,  not  divine.  They,  however,  show  the 
struggle  of  truth,  in  its  onward  march  to  the  per- 
fecting of  the  kingdom  of  God  among  men.  We 
call  this  progress,  but  it  is,  after  all,  that  kind 
of  progress  which  leads  the  patient,  persistent 
truth-seeker  back  to  the  fountain-head  of  all  re- 

59 


The  Atonement 

vealed  truth, — the  Word  of  God, — as  the  sheet- 
anchor  of  human  hope. 

Having  stated  in  a  brief  way  the  leading 
theories  of  the  atonement,  but  passed  over  man}^ 
different  views  held  by  great  and  good  men,  we 
now  come  to  make  a  few  suggestions  relative  to 
this  doctrine  in  the  future.  No  doubt  the  present 
trend  of  theological  thought  is  the  necessity  of  a 
closer  adherence  to  biblical  teachings  on  all  the 
great  themes  of  man's  salvation. 

As  to  the  atonement,  the  apostolic  or  scriptural 
theory  or  doctrine,  in  a  brief  form,  is  about  this : 
The  putting  away  of  sin,  and  reconciling  the 
world  to  God  by  Christ  in  his  death.  The  analysis, 
then,  of  the  atonement  thus  stated  would  be : 

1.  The  ransom  paid — Christ's  death  upon  the 
cross. 

2.  The  effects  of  it.  (1)  The  estrangement 
between  God  and  man  eliminated  and  the  world 
reconciled  to  God.  (2)  The  forgiveness  of  the 
sins  of  all  men  who  repent  and  believe  in  Christ 
as  their  Saviour.  (3)  The  resurrection  of  the 
dead  and  everlasting  life  to  the  obedient.  (4)  The 
complete  vindication  of  the  divine  government 
and  the  restoration  of  harmony  in  the  moral  uni- 

60 


The  Atonement 

verse,  disturbed  by  sin,  and  every  condition  of  jus- 
tice and  righteousness  met  in  the  divine  adminis- 
tration. 

Here  we  have,  then,  Christ's  death  upoii  the 
cross  as  the  means  by  which  he  atoned  for  the 
world's  sin,  by  which  the  world  is  reconciled  to 
God,  and  the  estrangement  between  God  and  man 
is  eliminated,  so  that  all  who  will  may  secure  for- 
giveness of  sins  and  obtain  everlasting  life. 
Christ's  death  is  to  be  conceived  as  a  sin-annulling 
death,  "as  putting  away  sin,"  because  in  that  death 
"on  him  was  laid  the  iniquity  of  us  all,'^  and  "who 
his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  body  upon  the 
tree,  ...  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed."^^ 
He  was  the  just  one,  yet  he  bare  the  world's  sin 
and  disposed  of  it  and  its  condemnation,  in  a 
sense,  that  henceforth  there  is  "no  condemnation 
to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  That  is  the 
ultimate  fact  in  the  death  of  Christ,  which  gives 
it  significance  and  makes  it  vicarious ;  he  took  the 
place  of  another,  the  just  for  the  unjust. 

1.  In  the  world's  redemption,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  the  heart  of  God  is  revealed  to  man. 

2.  The  gift  of  his  Son  is  the  highest  exhibition 
of  the  love  of  the  Father. 

"I.  Pet.  2:24. 

61 


The  Atonement 

(1)  Jesus  Christ  is  a  self-revelation  of  God  to 
man,  through  whom  the  fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man  is  made  manifest. 

(2)  In  the  world's  redemption  through  Christ 
the  loving  heart  of  God  as  Father  is  revealed. 

(3)  God  always  loved  man,  but  was  grieved  at 
his  wickedness,  and  could  not  become  reconciled 
to  his  sins ;  hence,  by  the  putting  away  of  sin  by 
the  death  on  the  cross,  the  reconciliation  of  the 
world  to  God  was  effected,  which  was  reciprocal 
in  removing  all  estrangement  between  God  and 
man. 

(4)  1^0  correct  interpretation  of  the  atone- 
ment can  be  given,  based  upon  any  one  metaphor 
or  phase  of  the  Scriptures,  but  all  that  Christ  said 
and  did,  and  what  the  apostles  said  is  the  true 
basis  for  its  interpretation. 

(5)  The  love  of  God  as  Father  of  our  race  is 
the  golden  center  from  which  springs  the  exalted 
conception  of  the  world's  redemption  by  Christ. 
"God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  The 
humanity  of  God,  and  how  completely  man  may 
become  enswathed  in  God,  is  like  a  new  revelation 

62 


The  Atonement  ] 

\ 

falling  upon  the  churcli.     Let  this  truth,  then,  j 

rest  with  the  one  who  reads  these  pages;  namely,  i 

that  no  one  can  understand  what  Christ  is  or  j 

what  he  has  done,  unless  he  is  led  into  all  the  j 

truth  by  the*Holy  Spirit,  who  is  the  only  revealer  j 

and  interpreter  of  the  truth.  j 


63 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

YiEws  OF  THE  Atonement  Held  by  the  Church 
OF  THE  United  Brethren  in  Christ. 

The  atonement,  as  taught  by  the  Church  of  the 
United  Brethren  in  Christ,  is  set  forth  especially 
in  the  third  article  of  its  Confession  of  Faith. 
True,  the  word  "atonement"  nowhere  occurs  in 
the  Confession,  yet  the  doctrine  is  so  clearly  im- 
plied in  the  words,  'Hliat  tins  Jesus  suffered  and 
died  upon  the  cross  for  us/'  that  no  mistake  can 
be  made  as  to  the  Church's  belief  in  the  vicarious 
atonement  wrought  out  by  Christ.  In  this  same 
article  his  divine  and  human  nature,  his  incarna- 
tion, his  mediatorship,  and  the  world's  Saviour,  are 
definitely  declared  of  him,  who  put  away  sin  by  the 
sacrifice  of  himself,  so  that  in  this  third  article  of 
the  Confession,  the  substance,  full  and  complete, 
of  the  atonement  is,  with  sufficient  distinctness, 
taught.  It  will  be  readily  conceded  that  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  as  set  forth  in  her  Book  of  Dis- 

64 


The  Atonement 

cipline,  contains  the  doctrines  held  by  the  United 
Brethren  Church,  and  that  her  ministers  and  peo- 
ple are  properly  required  to  maintain  these  doc- 
trines and  their  legitimate  and  rightful  interpre- 
tation. 

The  absence  of  the  word  "atonement"  from  the 
thirteen  articles  of  the  Confession,  as  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  from  the  entire  Discipline  as  well, 
is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  a  license,  granting  priv- 
ilege to  any  minister  or  layman  of  indulging  his 
own  peculiar  conceptions  or  vagaries  and  teach- 
ing them  respecting  the  atonement.  This  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  each  member  agrees  to  be 
governed  by  the  Church  Discipline,  on  his  recep- 
tion into  the  Church ;  and  also  every  candidate  for 
the  ministry  must  subscribe  to  the  Confession  of 
Faith  before  he  can  receive  license  from  the  quar- 
terly conference  to  preach.  Also,  the  professors  in 
the  Church's  Theological  Seminary  solemnly  de- 
clare, "I  believe  the  Confession  of  Faith,  as  con- 
tained in  the  thirteen  articles  in  our  Book  of 
Discipline  to  be  a  truthful  concensus  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Bible."  They  also  "prom- 
ise" not  to  teach  or  insinuate  anything  out  of  ac- 
cord "with  the  Constitution  and  the  Confession  of 

5  «5 


The  Atonement 

Paith  and  the  rules  of  the  Church  as  set  forth  in 
the  Discipline  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ."^ 

The  terms  in  the  Confession  convey  the  correct 
conception  of  the  atonement,  as  well  as  imply  the 
interpretation  required  by  the  Chrrch,  and  the 
doctrine  intended  to  be  taught  when  the  word  is 
used.  In  the  third  article  of  the  Confession  not 
only  is  the  doctrine  in  question  unequivocally  im- 
plied, but  the  price  of  the  atonement  and  the  ef- 
fects accomplished  by  it  are  definitely  stated.  The 
terms  used  may  not  be  strictly  modem,  but  as  to 
the  essence  of  the  doctrine,  that  is  plain  and  easily 
understood,  and  may  be  traced  to  two  sources: 
first,  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and,  second,  to  the 
teachings  of  the  primitive  church.  The  Apostles' 
Creed,  which  stands  in  connection  with  the  Church 
formulas  in  the  Book  of  Discipline,  is  proof  of 
this.  The  doctrine  held  by  any  church,  to  be  of 
authority  must  be  capable  of  being  traced  to  the 
Word  of  God. 

It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  the  formulators  of 
the  thirteen  articles  of  this  Confession  have  suc- 
ceeded so  well  in  the  selection  of  the  term  used  as 
to  cause  no  just  ground  for  criticism  on  the  creed 

» Dis.,  p.  134. 


The  Atonement 

of  their  Church.  In  the  third  article,  the  suffer- 
ings and  death  of  Christ  are  stated  to  be  'J or  us''; 
hence  his  death  was  vicarious.  Its  purpose  was  to 
eliminate  the  estrangement  which  sin  had  intro- 
duced between  God  and  man.  Christ  in  and  by  his 
death  "put  away  sin/'  which  was  the  cause  of  the 
estrangement,  and  thereby  swept  the  estrange- 
ment out  of  the  way,  also.  The  effect  was  to  recon- 
cile the  world  to  God,  which,  in  a  sense,  was  recip- 
rocal, for  the  reason  that  man  was  in  rebellion 
against  God,  and  God  was  justly  grieved  at  man's 
attitude  toward  him,  and  angry  at  man's  sins ;  not 
angry  at  man,  but  grieved  at  him;  yet  he  loved 
him.  Christ  nailed  sin,  that  at  which  God  was 
angry  and  which  was  the  cause  of  his  grief,  to  the 
cross,  and  put  it  out  of  the  way,  and  thereby  a  re- 
ciprocal reconciliation  was  effected.  In  the  same 
article,  the  universality  of  the  atonement,  with 
due  limitations,  is  set  forth.  Christ  is  the  "Saviour 
and  Mediator  of  the  whole  human  race,"  provided 
"they  with  full  faith  accept  the  grace  proffered 
in  Jesus." 

It  is  the  belief  and  teachings  of  this  Church 
that  all  who  die  before  they  reach  the  years  of  ac- 
countability,  and  unaccountable  adults,  and  all 

67 


The  Atonement 

adults  who  "with  full  faith  accept  the  grace  prof- 
fered in  Jesus/'  will  be  saved  through  the  atone- 
ment made  by  Christ,  and  that,  although  some 
will  perish,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  atonement, 
but  the  fault  of  the  one  who  perishes.  "Ye  will 
not  come  to  me,  that  ye  may  have  life,"^  The  only 
bar  to  man's  salvation  is,  he  will  not  accept  and 
comply  with  the  conditions  proffered  in  Jesus. 
Again,  in  the  same  third  article,  he  is  said  to  be 
man's  present  intercessor  at  the  right  hand  of  God 
in  heaven,  and  that  he  will  come  in  the  last  day 
to  judge  the  living  and  the  dead. 

In  this  creed,  also,  the  depravity  of  man  is  defi- 
nitely stated  in  the  eighth  article,  and  his  utter 
inability  to  extricate  himself  from  sin  is  fully  rec- 
ognized ;  but  through  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  he  may  be  inducted  into  the  kingdom  of 
God,  "through  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  he  poured 
out  upon  us  richly,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Sav- 
iour."^ Man,  a  sinner  lost,  and  Christ,  crucified, 
his  complete,  full,  and  perfect  Saviour,  Redeemer, 
and  Lord,  is  the  central  truth  in  the  United 
Brethren  Confession,  as  it  is  the  crowning  glory  of 

•John  5: 40.  »Titus3:5. 

68 


The  Atonement 

the  gospel  system  of  the  world's  redemption.  "How 
much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through 
the  eternal  Spirit  offered  himself  without  blemish 
unto  God,  cleanse  your  conscience  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God?"*  Thus  we  have 
Christ  in  the  entire  sacred  Scriptures,  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  set  forth  as  the  world's  one 
and  only  hope. 

What  an  exalted  view  of  Christ,  the  world's 
Saviour,  Redeemer,  and  Lord,  this  is!  The  un- 
fathomable richness  of  this  atonement,  in  its 
height,  breadth,  and  depth,  and  the  unspeakable 
glory  of  Christ,  its  author,  cannot  be  measured  or 
comprehended  by  man,  its  recipient;  but  this 
truth  must  ever  be  kept  before  the  world ;  namely, 
the  Scriptures  do  not  teach  unconditional  salva- 
tion to  man  by  the  atonement,  but  urge  repentance 
toward  God  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  vital  condition  of  being  saved  and  re- 
leased from  the  power,  condemnation,  and  punish- 
ment for  sin.  The  atonement  avails  only  upon 
personal  acceptance  of  Christ  and  his  pardon  as 
made  accessible  in  the  atonement.  Its  infinite  of- 
fer of  a  free  and  full  pardon  is  the  strongest  possi- 

*Heb.  9:14. 

69 


The  Atonement 

ble  motive  to  repentance  and  faith  in  God,  and  to 
love  and  obey  him.  "How  shall  we  escape,  if  we 
neglect  so  great  salvation?"  To  reject  or  neglect 
it,  deepens  the  awful  doom  that  awaits  the  finally 
impenitent. 

While  our  Church  in  its  thirteen  articles,  and 
throughout  its  Book  of  Discipline,  teaches  the 
doctrine  of  a  full,  perfect,  and  adequate  atone- 
ment for  the  sins  of  the  whole  human  race,  yet  it 
does  not  attempt  an  explanation  of  how  the  death 
of  Christ  procured  redemption  and  reconciliation 
for  man.  That  is  one  of  the  inscrutable  mysteries 
yet  unrevealed,  and  belongs  to  the  "secret  things 
[which]  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God."^  The 
fact  is  clearly  and  definitely  affirmed  in  the  Word 
of  God,  but  no  explanation  given  as  to  how;  but 
that  is  God's  way  of  putting  things,  just  as  he 
gives  no  explanation  of  the  mode  of  the  divine  be- 
ing only  that  God  is  a  spirit.  In  the  divine  Word, 
facts  are  stated  which  are  to  be  believed,  not  ques- 
tioned. There  was  nothing  more  marked  in  the 
life  of  Jesus,  while  among  men,  than  some  of  his 
bold  and  daring  statements  respecting  himself, 
his  missions,  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  with- 

•Deut.29:29. 

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The  Atonement 

out  explanation.  Yet  this  inscrutable  mystery  is 
no  objection  to  the  profound  fact  which  underlies 
it ;  namely,  that  Christ,  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself, 
"put  away  sin."  There  are  many  facts  in  nature 
which  face  man  from  infancy  to  old  age  which  are 
inscrutable,  yet  he  acknowledges  their  reality. 
Indeed,  the  whole  sphere  of  human  knowledge  is 
shadowed  by  an  impenetrable  veil.  The  men  of 
science  do  not  claim  to  explain  every  fact  which 
exists  in  nature,  just  as  the  wise  theologian  does 
not  assume  to  explain  all  the  mysteries  connected 
with  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  chief  difficulty  with  the  many  defective 
theories  of  the  atonement  is  due  to  attempts  to 
explain  what  has  not  been  written,  or  cater  to  pre- 
conceived opinions  with  what  has  been  written, 
rather  than  to  accept  a  logical  interpretation  of 
what  the  Scriptures  contain  on  the  subject.  When 
the  Word  states  that  Christ  "tasted  death  for 
every  man";  "who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in 
his  body  upon  the  tree" ;  that  he  gave  "himself  a 
ransom  for  many";  and  that  by  his  "stripes  ye 
were  healed";  who  "reconciled  us  to  himself" 
through  Christ,  and  many  more  scriptures  of  a 
like    character,    an    attempt    to    interpret    them 

71 


The  Atonement 

on  grounds  other  than  a  vicarious  atonement  is 
to  nullify  them,  and  render  them  nugatory  alto- 
gether. What  motive  or  purpose  of  the  incarna- 
tion, or  explanation  of  the  terms  used  in  Holy 
Writ,  expressive  of  atonement  and  redemption, 
can  be  given  by  him  who  rejects  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement?  He  who  believes  that  the  relation  of 
God  as  Father  to  man  is  such  as  to  secure  him  sal- 
vation without  the  possibility  of  a  forfeiture,  or 
holds  that  God  could  forgive  the  world's  sin  sim- 
ply on  the  grounds  of  repentance,  without  an 
atonement,  cannot  claim  logically  that  man's  sal- 
vation here  and  his  blessedness  in  heaven  are  the  re- 
sult of  Christ's  advent  to  the  world.  Let  him  ac- 
count intelligently  for  the  sufferings  and  death  of 
Christ  by  which  the  apostle  says,  "He  put  away 
the  world's  sins." 

No  intelligent  Christian  fails  to  be  impressecl 
with  the  benefits  and  blessings  to  our  cold  world 
of  humanity  from  the  example  of  obedience,  sym- 
pathy, and  love  manifest  in  the  life  of  our  blessed 
Lord  while  among  men,  and  that  it  was  of  the 
highest  utility  to  our  race;  but  it  was  not  salva- 
tion, and  he  did  not  proclaim  it  as  such,  nor  did 
the  apostles  preach  it  as  such,  but  as  high  priest, 

72 


llie  Atonement 

in  the  offering  np  of  himself  in  death  upon  the 
cross,  he  "pnt  away  sin"  and  redeemed  man  from 
the  curse  of  the  law  and  purchased  his  salvation. 
Ritschl,  whose  school  is  now  dominant  in  Ger- 
many, and  is  ethical  in  theory,  taught  in  substance 
that  '^Christ  redeemed  us  from  death,  as  the  debt 
of  nature,  by  showing  us  how  to  trust  God's  love 
even  in  that  extremity"  f  but  the  New  Testament 
teaches  that  Christ  redeemed  us  from  death,  as 
*^the  wages  of  sin,"  by  dying  for  us  and  bearing 
our  sins.  The  Word  says,  "Herein  is  love,  not 
that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent 
his  Son  to  be  a  propitiation  for  our  sins,"  and 
"that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for 
US."  These  two  passages  mean  about  the  same 
thing,  for  the  Scriptures  elsewhere  represent 
Christ's  death  as  the  propitiation  for  man's  sin. 

This  act  of  God  giving  liis  Son  to  be  made  "sin 
for  us  who  knew  no  sin,"  that  we  might  obtain 
forgiveness  of  sins,  the  laying  of  our  sins  on  him 
who  was  willing  to  bear  them  and  able  to  put  them 
away,  that  they  might  lay  no  more  on  us,  is  re- 
srarded  in  the  divine  Word  as  a  manifestation  of 
the  culmination  of  the  Father's  love.     To  inter- 

•  studies  in  Theology,  Denny,  p.  143. 
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The  Atonement 

pret  God's  love  other  than  this  '^is  at  best  mean- 
ingless, and  ethically  indifferent."  So  we  believe 
and  so  we  teach. 

To  summarize,  then,  the  conception  of  the 
atonement  as  taught  in  the  United  Brethren  Con- 
fession : 

1.  Christ  by  his  suffering  and  death  upon  the 
cross  made  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world. 

2.  That  this  atonement  is  full,  perfect,  and 
adequate  to  put  away  sin,  and  meets  all  the  claims 
of  the  divine  government. 

3.  That  by  it  the  divine  administration  is  vin- 
dicated, and  its  rights  are  maintained. 

4.  That  by  means  of  this  atonement,  '^through 
repentance  towards  God  and  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ/'  all  may  be  saved. 

5.  That  redemption,  probation,  pardon,  adop- 
tion, justification,  sanctification,  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead,  and  eternal  life,  are  effects  of  the 
atonement. 

All  these  doctrines  were  maintained  and 
preached  by  Bishop  Otterbein,  the  founder  of  the 
denomination,  and  are  held  by  it  at  the  present 
time.    In  a  word,  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  United 

74 


The  Atonement 

Brethren  in  Christ  to  include  in  its  Confession  all 
that  the  New  Testament  teaches  on  the  doctrine 
of  the  atonement,  no  difference  how  imperfectly 
expressed  in  creed  or  taught  by  preacher,  and  thus 
include  all  the  great  truths  held  and  taught  by 
the  multitude  of  theories  on  this  subject,  to  the 
exclusion  of  error.  What  might  have  been  the 
line  in  which  man's  destiny  would  have  been  ful- 
filled had  he  always  remained  loyal  to  the  throne 
of  heaven,  the  Word  of  God  says  nothing,  and  no 
one  can  tell ;  but  he  did  not,  and  sin  entered,  and 
death  by  sin;  but  that  man  is  constituted  for  im- 
mortality and  has  the  promise  of  it  in  his  being 
from  the  first,  forbids  us  to  ascribe  to  death  a  nat- 
ural and  inevitable  place  in  his  career.  It  is  an 
intrusion,  and  by  the  atonement  it  is  put  away, 
abolished. 


75 


